New DPhil in Area Studies Launched at Oxford

17 August 2016

The School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies (SIAS) is proud to announce the launch of a new and distinctive DPhil in Area Studies to complement its existing world-renowned master’s programmes. Applications for our doctorate will be accepted from September 1st 2016, for entry in October 2017.

The School is recognised as one of the world’s foremost centres for research and teaching in Area Studies, offering specialist postgraduate courses covering Africa, China, Japan, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe, India and South Asia, and the Middle East. SIAS hosts the largest department of Area Studies scholars anywhere, engaging with both theoretical and empirical debates to deliver ground-breaking research that shapes a better understanding of contemporary global challenges. In the recent REF, the School’s submission was rated as the most impressive in terms of volume of research that was judged to be world leading (4*) – by a considerable margin. Building on these firm foundations for success, the department offers a vibrant and dynamic educational environment and we are very excited to be adding the DPhil in Area Studies to this impressive portfolio.

Our DPhil is a research doctorate designed to turn students into scholars. Its distinctive approach will provide the opportunity to undertake a project dedicated to the study of a specific country, a particular region, or to create a comparative perspective of more than one country or region from across the School’s area-based programmes and Centres. Throughout their time studying for the DPhil in Area Studies, the department’s doctoral cohort will be part of an international community of students, tutors, researchers, and practitioners from across the School that engage with Area Studies, as well as with relevant disciplines from the Social Sciences Division and the University as a whole.

Workshop "Forty years on from Operation Condor: Comparative Experiences in the Southern Cone and Brazil:” Final Report now available in English, Spanish, French and Portuguese

26 July 2016

On June 24, 2016, Dr Francesca Lessa organised together with the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu a closed-session workshop, held at the Montevideo’s Municipal Government in Montevideo, Uruguay, with the participation of human rights activists, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and members of national ministries, for a total of 36 participants. Taking as starting point the Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires, but also investigations in Chile and Uruguay on the same subject, the discussion focused on the legal and factual challenges associated with investigating transnational crimes. Working in two small groups, the goal was to develop suggestions for concrete tools and strategies to implement at the national and regional levels to facilitate the investigation of Operation Condor crimes. Two key recommendations that emerged from the workshop were: the creation of teams dedicated exclusively to the investigation of human rights lawsuits and the need to establish channels ensuring a smooth flow of information, such as for example, creating a database for judges and prosecutors to access information and records to use in judicial proceedings.

The final report is now available in Spanish, French, English and Portuguese.

DPhil student wins thesis prize at the Museum of Memory in Santiago, Chile

4 July 2016

Hugo Rojas Corral, an Oxford DPhil student, was awarded a prize for his thesis “The Veil of Oblivion: Explaining indifference to past human rights violations in Chile” by the Museum of Memory in Santiago, Chile.

Operation Condor, 40 Years Later: a three-day event by the Latin American Centre and the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu

30 July 2016

The Latin American Centre of the University of Oxford and the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu (OLI), together with Montevideo’s Municipal Government and the Human Rights Secretariat of the Central Trade Union PIT-CNT, held a three-day event in Montevideo (Uruguay) from June 22 to 24, 2016, within the framework of the project “Justice without Borders: Accountability for Transnational Crimes in South America,” funded by the ESRC’s Impact Acceleration Account of the University de Oxford, The Leverhulme Trust, The British Academy, and also supported by Open Society Foundations’ Human Rights Initiative.

The event was held the week before the 43rd anniversary of the dictatorial coup in Uruguay and commemorated the 40th anniversary of Operation Condor, of which Uruguay was a founding member. The transnational network of Operation Condor - set up by the regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay – facilitated the persecution of political opponents beyond borders throughout South America, resulting in hundreds of illegal detentions, murders, and disappearances.

On Wednesday, June 22, a press conference took place in the building of the Uruguayan Press Association to formally launch the event. The speakers were Dr. Francesca Lessa (LAC), Raúl Olivera (OLI Coordinator) and Dr. Pablo Ouviña (Condor Trial public prosecutor). That same afternoon, Dr. Lessa, Dr. Ouviña, Dr. Paulina Zamorano (Human Rights Programme, Chilean Ministry of Interior) and journalist Luiz Claudio Cunha were invited to Radio Uruguay on the afternoon show to discuss progresses and challenges in the prosecution of Condor crimes in Argentina, Chile, and Brazil.

On Thursday, June 23, the conference “Operation Condor: 40 Years Later” was held in the Paraninfo of the University of the Republic. The conference was organized just one month after the historic Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires ended. The key conference goals were to disseminate the verdict and discuss the status of investigations into Condor crimes across the Southern Cone and Brazil. The Opening Panel inaugurated the event with the words of Hugo Rodriguez, the representative sent by the University Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Francesca Lessa (LAC Oxford) and Raúl Olivera (OLI Coordinator).

The first panel focused on the Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires and the speakers were: Lorena Balardini (University of Buenos Aires), who provided an overview of human rights trials in Argentina over the past decade; Jaime Nuguer (lawyer for the original lawsuit), who outlined the origins of the historic Condor prosecution in 1999; Martin Rico (lawyer from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice Human Rights Secretariat), who discussed the background and features of Operation Condor; and Pablo Ouviña (Prosecutor in the Argentine Operation Condor trial), who through the emblematic case of two Uruguayans and three Argentines detained in Paraguay in 1977, discussed the inner workings of Operation Condor. The moderator was Dr. Francesca Lessa, from Oxford.

The second panel tackled investigations on Operation Condor crimes in Uruguay. It began with criminal prosecutor Gilberto Rodriguez who discussed some of the challenges in human rights prosecutions in Uruguay. Subsequently, Mirtha Guianze, a former criminal prosecutor, outlined her work in two leading cases relating to Operation Condor, which led to two historic verdicts in 2009, in one case seeing a former military dictator sentenced for 37 murders. Judge Mariana Mota recounted her efforts as a criminal judge when she was tackling over 50 separate criminal proceedings relating to dictatorship crimes, several of them linked to Operation Condor. Pablo Chargoñia (Coordinator of the Legal Team of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu) described current efforts by the legal team in litigating trials in Uruguay, including the recent filing of a new lawsuit regarding the disappearance of Uruguayan Hector Giordano in Buenos Aires in 1978. Lilian Celiberti, a Uruguayan survivor of an Operation Condor kidnapping in Brazil, narrated the enduring struggle against impunity in Uruguay. The panel was moderated by Leonardo Di Cesare, a lawyer from the OLI.

The third panel focused on Operation Condor and Brazil. Jair Krischke, President of the NGO Movement for Justice and Human Rights, narrated endeavours undertaken to firstly locate and then extradite to Argentina former Uruguayan Army Coronel, Manuel Cordero, later sentenced for 11 cases of disappearances in Buenos Aires in the Condor trial. Journalist Luiz Claudio Cunha who saved Lilian Celiberti’s life in 1978 when he went to her house together with a photographer, recounted his attempts to ensure that Lilian and her family members would not be disappeared and that the individuals involved in the failed kidnapping would be identified. Finally, public prosecutor Ivan Claudio Marx discussed his work in trying to initiate criminal investigations in Brazil regarding Operation Condor atrocities committed there.

On Friday, June 24, a closed-session workshop was held on the premises of Montevideo’s Municipal Government with the participation of human rights activists, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and members of national ministries, for a total of 36 participants. Taking as starting point the Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires, but also prosecutions in Uruguay and Chile on the same subject, the discussion focused on the legal and factual challenges associated with investigating transnational crimes. After an introductory session, two separate groups worked for 1.5 hours to address debate and exchange experiences in relation to the Operation Condor trial and the investigation and prosecution of transnational crimes. Working in the two groups, led by the project consultant Lorena Balardini (PhD student at the University of Buenos Aires), Dr. Lessa, Raúl Olivera, and Maria Florencia Gonzalez (Chilean Ministry of Justice and Human Rights), the aim was to develop suggestions for concrete tools and strategies to implement at the national and regional levels to facilitate the investigation of Operation Condor crimes. Among the key recommendations discussed were the creation of a regional database to simplify the exchange of information and proofs among judges and prosecutors, as well as the creation of multidisciplinary research teams. These conclusions, together with those gathered in the 2015 event in Chile, will be then presented to regional organisations and justice ministries.

Horizontes 2016

We are pleased to announce the publication of our 2016 edition of Horizontes, the University of Oxford Latin American Centre newsletter.

SIAS Green Impact Team goes GOLD!

16 June 2016

On Wednesday 15th June, the University’s Environmental Sustainability Team invited us all to the Blavatnik School of Government for their annual Sustainability Showcase.

We are proud to announce that the School’s Green Impact Team were presented with a Gold award – the highest accolade possible within the Green Impact scheme.

The Showcase is an opportunity to distribute awards to the numerous Green Impact teams and others involved in sustainability practices for their achievements over the past year and this year’s event was described by Professor William James, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Planning and Resources) as “the biggest celebration of social and environmental actions…at Oxford University ever” joining together the Sustainability Awards and the Social Impact Awards for the very first time.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson said “There really is an extraordinary amount of work taking place in the University, both within the Departments and most particularly across them, which is really very exciting.”

The evening itself not only gave us the chance to celebrate our achievements, but also to take part in a tour of the recently opened Blavatnik School of Government at the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. The building was designed and built with energy efficiency and sustainability targets at the fore and is expected to consume 49% less energy in comparison to existing UK buildings of the same size and usage. It has received a “BREEAM Excellent”* rating and incorporates a multitude of environmental systems in its design.

After the awards, we were all able to celebrate with a glass of sparkling wine and canapes from a local sustainable menu.

We would like to express our great thanks to the Environmental Sustainability Team for all of their support in helping us and other Green Impact teams achieve our goals over the past year and for organising such a wonderful event; we can’t wait to start again next term!

If you are a member of the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, staff or student, and would be interested in finding out more about the initiative or being part of the team, please contact us for details:

Dr Francesca Lessa interviewed by the BBC, the New York Times and CCTV America in the aftermath of the Operation Condor trial verdict

8 June 2016

Dr Lessa, based in Buenos Aires since 2014 to monitor the Operation Condor trial, was interviewed by the BBC, the New York Times, CCTV America and three radio stations in Uruguay. The verdict in this historic prosecution was delivered in the Comodoro Py courthouse on May 27. The tribunal recognised that Operation Condor constituted a join criminal enterprise set up by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay to perpetrate human rights violations beyond borders across South America; 15 out of the 17 defendants received prison sentences, including former Argentine dictator Bignone and Uruguayan Army officer Cordero.

Operation Condor was a campaign of state-sponsored terror organised by South American dictatorships in the 1970s, designed to hunt down political opponents across the continent.

Dr Francesca Lessa interviewed on the BBC on the day of the Operation Condor trial verdict

27 May 2016

Dr Lessa, based in Buenos Aires to monitor the Operation Condor trial, was interviewed this week by the BBC. The trial verdict in this historic prosecution will be delivered this afternoon in the Comodoro Py courthouse.

Operation Condor was a campaign of state-sponsored terror organised by South American dictatorships in the 1970s, designed to hunt down political opponents across the continent.

Timothy Power Discusses Brazil Impeachment Proceedings in News Media

13 May 2016

On 12 May 2016, the day on which President Dilma Rousseff was suspended from office, Timothy Power discussed Brazil’s impeachment crisis in a television interview on TRT World. He also provided commentary to BBC World Service NewsHour (excerpt here) and was a guest on The World Tonighton BBC Radio 4 (segment beginning at 19:30).

LAC-CAF Conference in Brasília: “The Future of Social Policy in Latin America: Is the Good News Fading?”

25 April 2016

On 14 March 2016, the LAC held its third biennial conference in Latin America co-organised with CAF-Development Bank of Latin America. The topic was “Social Policy in Latin America” and the local partner was IPEA (Institute for Applied Economic Research, government of Brazil). Academics and policy makers from Brazil, Venezuela, the US, UK, and Canada discussed the vulnerability of social gains after the end of commodity boom. Download the full report here. Pictured left to right: Victor Rico (CAF representative in Brazil), Jessé de Souza (president of IPEA), Diego Sánchez-Ancochea (director, LAC), and Wasim Mir (deputy chief of mission, UK Embassy in Brazil).

Ambassador of Cuba in the UK visits the LAC and St Antony's

25 February 2016

Ambassador Teresita Vicente Sotolongo and other members of Cuba's diplomatic corp visited the Latin American Centre. We had the opportunity to have lunch in St Antony's and explore future collaboration projects.

Open Society Foundation funded project

19 February 2016

Corporate Responsibility for Human Rights Violations during past Dictatorships and Armed Conflicts: Promoting Strategic Litigation and Truth Commissions. For further information please visit the research pages.

Professor Leigh Payne wins Newton Awards

19 February 2016

Professor Leigh Payne has recently been awarded two Newton Awards. Please visit the research pages for details of the two projects.

The LAC at the 25th anniversary of the Colombian Constitution in the Javeriana University

11 February 2016

Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbó gave the inaugural speech at the international Conference to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Colombian 1991 Constitution, organized by the Law Faculty at Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá on 2-5 February. Following the opening remarks by the Rector of the University, Father Jorge Humbero Pelaez (in photo), Professor Posada-Carbó talked about the ‘Origins and Trajectories of Colombian Constitutionalism’, where he argued that the Colombian 1991 Constitution was best understood within a long constitutional tradition dating back to the early years of independence. The conference, convened by Dr. Hernando Yepes Ardila (a former member of the 1991 Constituent Assembly) also counted on the contribution of leading constitutionalists from Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Venezuela and Uruguay, as well as contributions from other former members of the 1991 Colombian Constituent Assembly and from leading constitutional lawyers from the Javeriana University.

CAF Fellowship 2016: Apply now

10 February 2016

The Latin American Centre is now seeking applications for the CAF Visiting Fellowship in Latin American Economics for 2016.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a researcher from one of the CAF shareholder countries to be attached to Oxford University and St Antony's College for a term (October-December 2016).

The Fellowship includes: up to £1000 for a flight to the UK, and c. £3000 a month living expenses, a desk with a computer at the LAC, a university card giving access to the Bodleian libraries, and the opportunity to present your research at the Centre.

For further details on eligibility and how to apply, please click here. The deadline for receipt of applications is Friday 18 March 12:00 noon (UK time).

CAF Scholarships 2016-17: Apply now

10 February 2016

The Latin American Centre is now seeking applications for the two CAF Scholarships for 2016-17. These scholarships are awarded to students from one of the CAF shareholder countries who take up a place to study on the MSc in Latin American Studies at the University of Oxford. The scholarships cover full course fees as well as college fees for St Antony's College. The deadline for applications for the MSc in LAS, and for the CAF scholarships, is Friday 11 March 2016. For further information on eligibility and how to apply please click here.

The two CAF scholars in 2015-16 are Lorena de la Puente Burlando from Peru and Marina Marandino Pinto from Brazil. For further information about them and previous scholarship holders, please click here.

40 Years since Operation Condor: "Justice without Borders" Conference in Santiago de Chile, December 17-18, 2015

18 January 2016

The Latin American Centre of the University of Oxford and the Ministry of Justice of Chile, together with the Senate (Centro de Extension) and the Museum of Memory and Human Rights, held a two-day event in Santiago (Chile) on December 17-18, 2015 within the framework of the project “Justice without Borders: Accountability for Transnational Crimes in South America,” funded by the ESRC’s Impact Acceleration Account of the University de Oxford, The Leverhulme Trust, The British Academy, and also supported by Open Society Foundations’ Human Rights Initiative.

The event was held to coincide with the anniversary of the foundational meeting of Operation Condor between late November and early December 1975, in Santiago. The transnational network of Operation Condor - set up by the regimes of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay – facilitated the persecution of political opponents beyond borders throughout South America, resulting in hundreds of illegal detentions, murders, and disappearances.

On Thursday, December 17, the conference “40 Years since Operation Condor: Justice without Borders” was held in a symbolic location, the former Congress, shut down by the Pinochet dictatorship and later moved to Valparaiso. The Opening Panel inaugurated the event with the words of the Chilean Sub-secretary of Justice, Ignacio Suárez, and with the participation of Ricardo Brodsky (Director of the Museum of Memory and Human Rights), Humberto Henderson (UN OHCHR Deputy Regional Representative for South America), Fernando Silva (Executive Director of the Senate’s Centro de Extension) and Dr Francesca Lessa (Researcher and project leader, University of Oxford). The panel’s moderator was Sergio Campos, from Radio Cooperativa, an emblematic voice that accompanied Chileans through the dark days of the dictatorship.

The second panel focused on the Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires and the speakers were Jaime Nuguer (lawyer for the original lawsuit), who outlined the origins of the historic prosecution in 1999; Martin Rico (lawyer from Argentina’s Ministry of Justice Human Rights Secretariat), who discussed the background and features of Operation Condor; Luz Palmás Zaldua (lawyer from Argentina’s Centre for Legal and Social Studies) that analysed the strategic role played by human rights NGOs in the struggle for justice in Argentina for three decades, and Pablo Ouviña (Prosecutor in the Argentine Operation Condor trial), who through the emblematic case of Chilean-Swiss Alexei Jaccard Siegler, discussed the inner workings of Operation Condor. The moderator was Maria Florencia Gonzalez from the Human Rights Unit of the Ministry of Justice.

The third panel tackled the status of investigation about Operation Condor crimes in Chile. It began with former Appeals Court judge for human rights, Alejandro Solis, who discussed the case of the 1974 Operation Condor assassination in Buenos Aires of General Carlos Prats and his wife, a case he investigated. Subsequently, Paulina Zamorano Valenzuela, from the Human Rights Programme of the Ministry of Interior and Public Security, outlined the current Operation Condor case, as well as some of the obstacles and challenges of this specific investigation. Laura Elgueta Diaz recounted in a moving testimony the suffering of her family that, after leaving Chile to take refuge in Buenos Aires in 1974, had to live through the disappearance of her brother Luis Enrique in 1976 and her own detention in 1977 in Argentina. Eduardo Contreras, who filed the historic lawsuit that led to Pinochet’s being prosecuted for human rights violations in Chile, narrated some of the precedents and contexts to Operation Condor. Lastly, Dr Patricio Bustos, Director of the Legal Medical Service, described the forensic work of this unit. The panel was moderated by MP Tucapal Jimenez.

The conference concluded with the screening at the Museum of Memory of the new documentary “Operacão Condor: Verdade Inconclusa” (Operation Condor: an unfinished truth) with the participation of its director Cleonildo Cruz, an event attended by over 80 people.

On Friday, December 18, a closed-session workshop was held at the Miguel de Cervantes University with the participation of human rights activists, judges, prosecutors, lawyers, and members of national ministries, for a total of invited 24 participants, including Mario Carroza, judge of the Operation Condor case in Chile. Taking as starting point the Operation Condor trial in Buenos Aires, but also investigations in Chile on the same subject, the discussion focused on the legal and factual challenges associated with investigating transnational crimes. After an introductory session, two separate groups, with Argentine and Chilean participants, worked for 1.5 hours to address debate and exchange experiences in relation to the Operation Condor trial and the investigation and prosecution of transnational crimes. Working in the two groups, led by the project consultants Lorena Balardini and Marcos Kotlik (both PhD students at the University of Buenos Aires), the aim was to develop suggestions for concrete tools and strategies to implement at the national and regional levels to facilitate the investigation of Operation Condor crimes. Among the key recommendations discussed were the creation of a regional database to simplify the exchange of information and proofs among judges and prosecutors, as well as the creation of multidisciplinary research teams. These conclusions, together with those gathered in the subsequent events in 2016 in Brazil and Uruguay, will be then presented to regional organisations and justice ministries.

New report on social policy in Central America for ECLAC

13 January 2016

Juliana Martínez Franzoni, Diego Sánchez Ancochea and Salvador Martí have just concluded a report on universalism and social policy in Latin America that can be found on the CEPAL webpage. Here is the abstract:

This document studies changes and continuities in terms of social incorporation in El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua since the early 1990s. To this effect, old-age pensions, health services and conditional cash transfers (CCTs) programs, particularly in their relation to health services, are studied. The main concern is establishing the evolution of universal incorporation —particularly important for income redistribution— which takes place when social programs combine broad coverage, generosity and equity.

The study reports significant improvements in terms of social incorporation but most often of a segmented (as opposed to universal) kind. The three countries still face significant problems of coverage, generosity and equity in healthcare and pensions. Meanwhile, CCTs have been unequally able to influence the other social policy sectors. Although the three countries share these patterns, the document shows that El Salvador has taken more significant steps to promote universalism in healthcare (but not in pensions).

CAF European Academic Network: Book Launch on “Desafección Política"

30 November 2015

On 27th November, Timothy Power was a discussant at the book launch for Ludolfo Paramio (editor), Desafección política y gobernabilidad: el reto político (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2015). The event was held at the Secretaría General Iberoamericana (SEGIB) headquarters in Madrid, and featured participation from several other member institutions of the CAF European Academic Network, including Pedro Pérez Herrero (Universidad de Alcalá) and Olivier Dabène (Sciences-Po, Poitiers). Research for the edited volume, which was sponsored by CAF, features 12 original contributions on political mistrust and rising skepticism about politics in Latin America and Europe.

Antonian Mr Aurelio Nuño Mayer has been appointed Minister of Public Education in Mexico

25 September 2015

Antonian Mr Aurelio Nuño Mayer (MSc Latin American Studies, 2006) has been appointed Minister of Public Education by Mexico's President, Enrique Peña Nieto. Mr Nuño, former Chief-of-Staff of the President's Office, has now the great responsibility of assuring the adequate implementation of Mexico's education reform, which is considered the most important of the administrations’ ambitious reform agenda.

Mr Manolo Reynaud (MSc Latin American Studies, 2008) has been designated Senior Advisor of Mexico´s Minister of Public Education.

NEW BOOK BY MIGUEL CARTER ON BRAZIL’S MST

12 June 2015

Miguel Carter, a former Research Fellow at the Centre for Brazilian Studies and St Antony’s alum, has recently published Challenging Social Inequality: The Landless Rural Workers Movement and Agrarian Reform in Brazil with Duke University Press. In this edited volume, an international and interdisciplinary group of scholars and development practitioners explore the causes of, consequences of, and contemporary reactions to Brazil’s sharply unequal agrarian structure. They focus on the Landless Rural Workers Movement (MST), Latin America’s largest and most prominent social movement, and the ongoing efforts of the MST to confront historical patterns of inequality in the Brazilian countryside. Carter obtained his doctorate in political science at Columbia University, served as a lecturer at American University and is currently the Founding Director of DEMOS – Centro para la Democracia, la Creatividad y la Inclusión Social, a new think tank based in Paraguay.

The book´s dedicated page at the Duke University Press website can be found here, and for a link to the volume’s front matter and overview chapter see here.

NEW BOOK FROM TRACY FENWICK

18 May 2015

Tracy Beck Fenwick (Australian National University), a former St Antony’s student and LAC affiliate, has just published Federalism, Democracy, and Poverty Alleviation in Brazil and Argentina with the University of Notre Dame Press. Published in the Kellogg Institute series, the book analyzes how federalism affects the ability of governments to deliver conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes in Latin America. A native of Vancouver, Tracy received her DPhil from the Department of Politics and International Relations in 2009 and is currently the director of the Australian National Centre for Federalism at the ANU.

Former Director of the Latin American Centre, Sir Raymond Carr, has passed away

21 April 2015

From the Warden of St Antony's College, Prof Margaret Macmillan:

It is with great sadness that I have to announce the death of Sir Raymond Carr, our much respected and admired second Warden (1968 – 1987), and an Honorary Fellow of this College.

Sir Raymond, who was born in 1919, had a distinguished academic career. Educated at Christ Church, Oxford, he went on to lecture at University College London in 1945. He has been, amongst many things, a Fellow of All Souls, a Fellow of New College, Director of the Latin American Centre, a Distinguished Professor of Boston University, and the King Juan Carlos Professor of Spanish History at New York University. His many honours include the Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso el Sablo and the Order of Infante Dom Henrique. He was made a Knight Bachelor in the 1987 New Year’s Honours List. As Warden of this College he oversaw its growth and development into a major centre of regional and interdisciplinary studies.

Latest Seminar Podcasts

New Book by Danilo Limoeiro (MPhil 2011)

31 March 2015

The University of Brasília Press has just released a new book by LAC alumnus Danilo Limoeiro. Entitled Além das Transferências de Renda (Beyond Income Transfers), the monograph examines the reduction of inter-regional inequalities in Brazil during the 2000s. The book updates and expands on Danilo’s MPhil research, which was supervised by Dr Diego Sánchez-Ancochea in 2009-2011. Danilo is now a PhD candidate in political science at MIT.

Rio Branco Professor Marcelo Medeiros Speaks on Brazil and the Regional Integration of South America

6 March 2015

On 27th February 2015, the Brazilian Studies Programme organized a roundtable on “Brazil and the Regional Integration of South America”. This was the annual event in association with the Rio Branco Professorship of the International Relations of Brazil, which is based in the BSP with the generous support of CAPES and the Instituto Rio Branco (Brazilian diplomatic academy). This year’s Rio Branco Professor, Dr Marcelo Medeiros (Federal University of Pernambuco) spoke along with Prof Olivier Dabène (Sciences-Po, Paris). The event was opened by HE Roberto Jaguaribe, Ambassador of Brazil to the UK.

The collaborative project between the University of Oxford and two human rights organizations, Andhes and Cels aims, first, to advance corporate accountability for human rights violations committed during authoritarian regimes, thereby raising the cost of such violations to reduce them in the future in Argentina and elsewhere. This goal involves user-led research to collect data and analyze evidence needed for effective litigation and public policy models. Second, the project aims to raise awareness of corporate complicity in repressive regimes. It thus includes user-led public engagement activities to disseminate the main findings of the project. The third aim is to produce valuable research and analytical tools to be adapted to other countries in which business are complicit in human rights violations. It relies on the co-development of research tools, specifically capacity-building through training and enhancing human resources to carry out needed research and analysis to advance accountability efforts. Fourth, an overall aim of the project is to legitimize and protect the work of human rights practitioners in this controversial area of abuse. It will achieve this goal by connecting the serious and objective work of human rights practitioners to the world renowned University of Oxford, providing global and local resonance to that project.

Professor Payne will present her research findings on transitional justice at World Bank HQ

3 March 2015

Professor Payne from the Transitional Justice Research Collaborative will discuss the impact of transitional justice mechanisms in strengthening democracy, human rights, and peace at the World Bank headquarters on Thursday 5 March. The Transitional Justice Research Collaborative, under way since 2010, is the most comprehensive single collection of information on TJ mechanisms in 116 countries around the world from 1970 to 2012. The group recently launched a website (https://transitionaljusticedata.com) including data on two parts to this project: traditional mechanisms (trials, amnesties, and truth commissions) and "alternative accountability" mechanisms (lustration and vetting, traditional or customary trials, civil trials, and reparations). Based on the analysis of these data, there is evidence to support the claims for the value of TJ in strengthening democracy, human rights, and peace. But not all mechanisms, at all times, or in all combinations produce positive outcomes. The new database and analysis is more refined and complete than its previous iteration, allowing for further testing and confirmation of some of the assumptions behind TJ's impact. Professor Leigh Payne and Bridget Marchesi will present a summary of their findings and suggest new directions in TJ to enhance its effect.

Outside Participants: We welcome participants from outside the World Bank. For reasons of building security, attendees who are not World Bank Group staff will need to register by emailing Victoria Esquivel-Korsiak at vesquivelkorsiak@worldbank.org by 12pm March 4th.

New grant awarded to researchers at the Latin American Centre

12 February 2015

Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and Francesca Lessa were successfully awarded a grant from the University of Oxford’s ESRC Impact Acceleration Account in February 2015 for their project on Operation Condor and accountability for transnational crimes in South America. The project will run for eight months (May to December 2015) and will bring together the Oxford researchers and local partners in Brazil, Chile and Uruguay for exchanges on the topic of accountability for transnational crimes, to debate and develop appropriate and effective public policies to redress crimes perpetrated by multiple states. Judiciaries across the world increasingly have to respond to transnational crimes, i.e. crimes perpetrated by complex criminal structures made up of multiple state and/or non-state actors. What challenges do judiciaries face when dealing with transnational crimes? What public policies may be needed? What forms of inter-judiciary, civil society and governmental cooperation underpin and increase the effectiveness of accountability efforts?

The proposed project addresses these policy-relevant questions by focusing on current judicial efforts, specifically the Operation Condor trial in Argentina, to redress the transnational crimes perpetrated jointly by military dictatorships in South America in the 1970s and 1980s. The Operation Condor trial is an excellent case study: it encompasses legal professionals, state and civil society actors and has required national as well as international forms of cooperation to facilitate the investigation of these complex offences.

Photo Credit: H.I.J.O.S. Capital

Remembering Tulio Halperín-Donghi (1926-2014)

9 January 2015

Tulio Halperín-Donghi, who held the Chair in Latin American History at Oxford in 1970-1, passed away last 14 November. Born in Buenos Aires on 27 October 1926, he completed his doctoral degree in history at the Universidad de Buenos Aires in 1955 going on to become one of the most respected Argentine historians of his generation. He lectured at the universities of Rosario, Buenos Aires and Harvard before coming to Oxford, and then moved for the rest of his academic career to the University of California at Berkeley, where he was made an Emeritus Professor in 1997. He published extensively on the history of Argentina and Latin America, including Argentina en el callejón (Montevideo, 1964), Politics, Economics and Society in Argentina in the Revolutionary Period (Cambridge, 1975), The Contemporary History of Latin America (Duke, 1993), and Una nación para el desierto argentino (Buenos Aires, 2005). His death, Francisco Pereguil wrote in El País, has ‘motivated in Argentina a similar consensus that the one which existed around his hero, Manuel Belgrano, to whom he devoted his last book. The Latin American Centre laments his passing and pays tribute to his memory. Below a few words from Klaus Gallo, Malcolm Deas and Alan Knight remembering him.

Born in 1926 in Buenos Aires, Halperín graduated in Law and History in that city’s university and continued with his postgraduate studies at the École Pratique des
Hautes Études, in Paris, where he established direct contact with Fernand Braudel and the écoles d’anales. Back in Argentina, he became a regular collaborator in publications such as Sur, the cultural supplement ofLa Nación, and Imago Mundi, where he met José Luis Romero and Claudio Sánchez Albornoz. It was partly due to the influence of these two historians that Halperín drove his attention towards medieval European history, an area of study to which he eventually dedicated his doctoral thesis Un conflicto nacional: moriscos y cristianos viejos en Valencia, presented in 1954.

A few years before, Halperín had already published his first significant work, a study on one of the pioneers of the so called Argentine Romantic group or Generación del 37, Esteban Echeverría, entitled El pensamiento de Echeverría (1951), putting in evidence, at this early hour, the wide range of his historical interests. This book is paradoxically one of Halperín’s least cited contributions, with a very limited circulation. During the latter part of that decade, Halperín wrote a series of articles around other referents of Argentina’s early intellectual and historiographic tradition such as Bartolomé Mitre, Vicente Fidel López, José María Ramos Mejía and Juan Alvárez.

In the first half of the 1960’s Halperín experienced the tumultuous and traumatic consequences of the post-peronist political experience in Argentina, which eventually forced him to abandon the University of Buenos Aires and leave his country in 1966, shortly after the military coup that same year. He arrived to the United States where he was professor at Harvard and, a couple of years later, also in the United Kingdom after obtaining the prestigious Chair in Latin American History at the University of Oxford. From 1971 onwards he taught at the University of California, at Berkeley. During the late sixties and early seventies, Halperín published some of his most significant books, namely Historia contemporánea de América latina; Revolución y Guerra. Formación de una elite dirigente en la Argentina criolla, which most historians regard as his most significant work, and also Historia Argentina. De la revolución de Independencia hasta la Confederación Rosista, which no doubt contributed to consolidate his stance as one of Latin America´s most prolific and influencial historians.

By the time democracy was re-established in Argentina in 1983, Halperín was already revered as a living legend in academic and intellectual circles, especially after the revitalization experienced in the sphere of historical studies, which allowed him to return more often to his country and participate actively in all sorts of academic events. In spite of his aura, those fortunate enough to approach him on such occasions –professors, students, admirers- were frequently surprised by his accessibility and humility. His influence is visible also in the academic contributions of some of his students and disciples during the last half century.

During the eighties and nineties, Halperín’s concern with the complexities of Argentine politics, was made visible with the publication of La larga agonía de la Argentina peronista (1994) and the re-edition of works such as Argentina.La democracia de masas (1991), a work that dated from 1972 and Argentina en el callejón (1995), originally published in 1964. This intense incursion in more contemporary themes coexisted with a series of writings on Argentine political and intellectual history, which Halperín presented as a collection of anthologies for the Biblioteca del Pensamiento Argentino, consisting of seven volumes published by Ariel. Four of these volumes were written and edited by established Argentine historians such as José Carlos Chiaramonte, Natalio Botana, Ezequiel Gallo, Beatríz Sarlo and Carlos Altamirano. The reminding three volumes were of Halperin’s authorship: the re-edited Proyecto y construcción de una Nación (1996); Vida y muerte de la República verdadera; 1910-1930 (2000); La República Imposible. 1930 - 1945. (2004)

His more recent publications reflect up to what extent he was inclined to return to the area of studies of his first publications: intellectual history in general, and more specifically the political trajectories of certain Latin American nineteenth century intellectual referents, namely Alberdi, Sarmiento, Mitre, Lastarria, Mier, Samper, Prieto and Belgrano, as can be witnessed particularly in some of his essays published in the brilliant El espejo de la historia; problemas argentinos y perspectivas hispanoamericanas (1987), more recently in Letrados y Pensadores. El perfilamiento del Intelectual hispanoamericano en el siglo XIX (2012), and in his final and probably most controversial contribution, El enigmaManuel Belgrano. Un héroe para nuestro tiempo (2014). He also wrote an autobiography entitled Son Memorias, an incisive account of his early life and first incursions in the academic world which, inevitably, left quite a few of his readers longing for a follow up rendering his most prolific years as a leading historian.

Certain patterns and trends reverberate from the wide variety and scope of Halperín´s works. As the reader penetrates an often complex, dense and at times impenetrable narrative structure, he is confronted and simultaneously illuminated by the ironies, nuances, subtleties, and wit that emerge from Halperín´s sharp and original analysis. A similar effect was evident on the occasions when Halperín lectured in courses and conferences or simply conversed with colleagues and friends in cafes and restaurants. Apart from his invaluable academic contributions, it was his style that made him truly unique, a style that enabled him to achieve what few have managed: a trademark.

Malcolm Deas writes: ‘Tulio's passage through Oxford was relatively short, but long enough for all of us who came to know him and who heard him lecture here to have fixed in our memories his brilliance, originality and wit. He was also, behind a certain shyness and puzzlement with the native Anglo-Saxons, a keen and often amused observer of the vagaries of the University and of many of its inhabitants. On meeting him on subsequent occasions in Argentina, one would be again impressed by his limitless and undiminished curiosity and incisiveness, and be moved by his friendly enquiries about his erstwhile colleagues here, which showed we were not forgotten’.

Alan Knightwrites: I was a graduate student and postdoc at Oxford during Tulio’s brief stint as Professor of the History of Latin America. In fact, the first paper I ever gave was in the LAC, c1971, with Tulio chairing, charitably. Though he (and his family) did not take to Oxford (and who can blame them, I am tempted to add?) so he moved on to UC Berkeley, where he remained thereafter. But he maintained an interest in Oxford, and recommended at least one Argentine historian, Roy Hora, to opt for Oxford, when he did his (very good) doctorate. Tulio also returned to Oxford for occasional events, maintaining an interest in our modest programme, and I encountered him at several conferences over the years: at Berkeley, Urbana-Champaign, and Tel-Aviv (when we visited Jerusalem together and Tulio, though already quite old, had no trouble with the touristic forced march we had to undergo). Though towards the end of his life he became physically very frail, his sharp intellect was never blunted: at the last LASA conference (Chicago May 2014), which he could not attend in person, they showed an interview recently filmed at Berkeley which showed him to be as lively as ever. He could also be waspishly critical (‘he did not suffer fools gladly’); but I won’t name names. His historical output was very substantial and wide-ranging. Though C19 Argentina was his chief area of expertise, about which he spoke with more authority than almost anyone, he also knew a lot about Mexico and ventured some interesting – and cogent - comparisons between the two countries. His writing (in Spanish) made few concessions to slow-witted or impatient readers; when I started teaching a Latin American survey course at Essex University in 1973 I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that Tulio’s Historia Contemporánea de América Latina was the set text, which posed a formidable challenge to students, it being dense, allusive, and written in Tulio’s elaborate baroque style, whereby clauses and parentheses writhed their way through serpentine sentences. But it remains one of the best overviews of modern Latin American history which – when very ably translated and abridged by John Chasteen – also became a stand-out textbook. It is difficult to think of another historian who made such a big contribution to our knowledge of C19 (and to some extent C20) Latin America.

Professor Leigh Payne receives Newton Fund Research Grant

9 January 2015

Congratulations to Professor Leigh Payne and Oriana Bernasconi Ramírez from Universidad Alberto Hurtado, recipients of a Newton Fund Research Grant. Leigh and Oriana will work on a project entitled: Political technologies of memory: a genealogy of the devices of registration and denunciation of human rights violations under the military dictatorship in Chile (1973-2013).

Video Podcast now available on II CAF Conference on The Emerging Middle Class in Latin America: Causes, Challenges and Opportunities

8 January 2015

We are pleased to inform you that you can now access the video podcast of all the II CAF Conference on The Emerging Middle Class in Latin America: Causes, Challenges and Opportunities.

We would like to thank all the speakers and all the participants for making this such a wonderful and successful event.

Marcelo Medeiros Appointed Rio Branco Chair for 2015

5 January 2015

Professor Marcelo Medeiros (Federal University of Pernambuco) has been appointed the Rio Branco Visiting Professor of the International Relations of Brazil for 2015. He will spend the period of January-April 2015 at the Latin American Centre researching the topic of “Regional Integration, Foreign Policy, and Executive-Legislative Relations: Brazil in Mercosul and France in the EU.” Professor Medeiros received his PhD from the Institut d'Études Politiques de Grenoble in 1997 and has published widely on South American integration and on Brazilian foreign policy. The Rio Branco Chair is based in the Brazilian Studies Programme with the generous support of CAPES, Brazilian Ministry of Education.

Research Excellence Framework: Area Studies

18 December 2014

SIAS and Oriental Studies are delighted to note that our REF2014 submission was the largest made to the Area Studies panel by a considerable margin.

Moreover it was rated as the most impressive in terms of volume of material that was judged to be world leading (4*) - again by a considerable margin. These results confirm the position of scholars in Oriental Studies and SIAS as being pre-eminent among those working in area studies in the UK. They demonstrate the significance of our contribution to the understanding of the world beyond Europe and North America and to the global status of Oxford University.

Publications on Transitional Justice and Memory now in paperback

2 December 2014

Two publications by LAC’s postdoctoral researcher Dr Francesca Lessa are now available in paperback. The first, ¿Justicia o impunidad? Cuentas pendientes en el Uruguay post-dictadura, addresses the unfinished business of the recent past of dictatorship and violence in Uruguay, by discussing the country’s trajectory in confronting dictatorship crimes between 1985 and 2014. It can be purchased online here.

The second, Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay: Against Impunity, was originally published in 2013 and explores the interaction between memory and transitional justice in post-dictatorship Argentina and Uruguay. Due to its success, Palgrave Macmillan is releasing just a year later a paperback edition, which will be available for purchase from December 10 onwards here.

The LAC does quite well in the winter issue of LAPS

Congratulations to Dave Doyle and Diego Sánchez-Ancochea, from the Latin American Centre, who figure very prominently in this volume!

LAC DPhil network students present their research

21 November 2014

On 20 November 2014 several of the LAC-DPhil network students made very professional and interesting presentations, the discussants had good questions and comments that pushed the speakers to think in new ways, and the audience pushed them further. It was an excellent first session of the year that fulfilled all of the expectations of the workshops: interdisciplinary and comparative country case/regional feedback on the project.

Here are the names of the speakers (and the titles of their presentations) and discussants:

Katherine Saunders-Hastings, Socio-Legal Studies: Order and Insecurity under the Mara: Violence, Coping, and Community in Guatemala City
Discussants: Rosana Pinheiro-Machado, Development Studies; Jorge Salcedo, Refugee Studies, Univ Rosario/Oxford

Successful Conference on Accountability for Corporate Complicity in Human Rights Violations in Dictatorships and Civil Conflicts

20 November 2014

Practitioners and academics from different regions of the world discussed corporate complicity, the most innovative approach in transitional justice practices. They documented processes underway, considered ‘best practices’ of corporate accountability, identify the factors that block accountability, and discussed ways to overcome those obstacles and advance corporate accountability. Also, participants discussed about the

Importance of developing collaborative initiatives between practitioners and academics to advance accountability in this realm.

Below are some links of different news agencies and institutions including the press agency of the Presidencia de la Nación covering the event.

LAC Horizontes Newsletter No 2

8 October 2014

Dear friends, Queridos amigos, we are pleased to announce the publication of the second edition of Horizontes, the University of Oxford Latin American Centre newsletter. We see this as an initiative to reconnect with all of you. Please do send us your news. And we hope to see you at our 50th anniversary celebration on 18-20 September 2015!

Warmest wishes from

The Latin American Centre

Prof Payne visits Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota

8 October 2014

Prof Payne visited the Law Faculty of the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, in Bogota, to talk about her collaborative research project on Business and Human Rights.

The LAC at the 50th Anniversary of the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos

25 August 2014

Professor Eduardo Posada-Carbó was invited to join the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Instituto de Estudios Peruanos (IEP), which took place in Lima on 20-23 August this year. He participated in an international panel to mark the occasion, on the theme ‘Desigualdad, ciuadadanía y nuevas identidades en América Latina’, together with Professor Elizabeth Jelin, from Conicet in Argentina, Ms Sonia Montaño, Director of the División de Asuntos de Género at ECLA in Santiago, and Professor Martin Tanaka, from the IEP. Professor Posada-Carbó’s presentation dealt with aspects of national identity and public intellectuals at times of crises in Colombia with comparative references to Perú.

Applications now closed for Rio Branco Visiting Professor of the International Relations of Brazil

20 August 2014

With generous support from CAPES (Brazilian Ministry of Education), the Brazilian Studies Programme will soon appoint the third Rio Branco Visiting Professor of the International Relations of Brazil. The successful candidate will spend three months at the Latin American Centre in early 2015. The application page is now live on the CAPES website. Applications close on 25th September.

Professor Payne delivers the inaugural Oxford Alumni Chile Tertulia 2014 at the residence of the British Embassy in Chile

8 August 2014

On 29 July the Association of Oxford Alumni Chile launched the Tertulias 2014 at the residence of the British Embassy. British Ambassador Fiona Clouder and Isabel Palma, Chairman of Oxford Alumni Chile, welcomed the alumni before special guest Professor Payne delivered the inaugural Tertulia: Overcoming Impunity: Pathways to Accountability in Latin America.

Dr Francesca Lessa launches her new book ¿Justicia o impunidad? in Uruguay

7 August 2014

Dr Lessa is in Montevideo to present her new book ¿Justicia o impunidad? Cuentas pendientes en el Uruguay post-dictadura published by Penguin Random House Uruguay this month. The book analyses Uruguay’s trajectory in confronting the legacy of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship (1973-1985) since returning to democracy three decades ago. Her research focuses on themes of justice, impunity and memory in the country. Dr Lessa has been interviewed by several radios (AM LIBRE, Radio Sarandi, CX30 and Radio Sodre) as well as magazines and Uruguay National TV Channel Canal 5.

Release of Brazilian Legislative Surveys, 1990-2013

1 August 2014

Timothy J. Power (Director, Brazilian Studies Programme) and Cesar Zucco Jr. (Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro) have released the new integrated dataset of the Brazilian Legislative Surveys, 1990-2013. This survey questionnaire has been applied to each elected parliament since Brazil returned to democracy in the 1980s. The BLS dataset now contains 1145 responses from 890 different Brazilian politicians over the past 24 years, and the most recent wave was supported by the John Fell OUP Research Fund. Power and Zucco announced the data release at the conference of the Brazilian Political Science Association (ABCP) in Brasília, 4-7 August 2014. The data, codebook and original questionnaires are available at http://thedata.harvard.edu/dvn/dv/bls.

Photo caption: Timothy Power and Cesar Zucco during fieldwork at Brazil’s Câmara dos Deputados during Wave 7 of the BLS, March 2013.

Photo credit: Ana Regina Amaral.

New LAC Working Paper in Political Economy: Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment in Latin America: A New Emerging Reality

21 July 2014

The latest LAC Working Paper in Political Economy analyses the link between the improving performance of specific sectors of the economy and the attraction of FDI in Latin America. The paper based on data from 19 countries highlights the role of domestic and international institutions in explaining these results. Its author, Michael Penfold, is director of Public Policies and Competitiveness of CAF Development Bank of Latin America and Associate Professor at Instituto de Estudios Superiores de Administración, Caracas, Venezuela.

Oxford-CAF Conference in Bogotá

17 July 2014

The cooperation agreement between LAC and CAF, Banco de Desarrollo de América Latina, was signed in 2011 and has produced a wide-ranging series of conferences on Latin American development. The most recent event, on the theme of “Institutions and Development” was held in Bogotá on 7th July 2014 with over 270 registered participants (papers available here). Our local partners were Fedesarrollo and the Banco de la República, which graciously hosted the event in its Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. The keynote address was given by Prof José Antonio Ocampo(Columbia University), and three panels analyzed the role of institutions in democratic consolidation, conflict resolution, and reduction of social inequalities.

On the occasion of the England-Uruguay World Cup match in São Paulo on June 19, Dr Lessa was invited to take part in three breakfast programmes of BBC Radio Oxford, BBC Radio Berkshire and BBC Radio Surrey.

Dr Lessa, postdoctoral researcher at the LAC, is an expert on Uruguay. In the programmes, she told listeners about some of Uruguay’s key characteristics, including typical foods like dulce de leche and asado (BBQ-style meat), famous Uruguay writers such as Eduardo Galeano and Uruguay’s love for football since winning the first World Cup back in 1930.

BBC Radio Oxford invited Dr Lessa back the morning after the match, to discuss the results and Uruguay's prospects in the World Cup.

On May 31, Prof. Leigh Payne, Dr. Francesca Lessa and Gabriel Pereira took part in the public launch of the website of the Transitional Justice Research Collaborative Data Project. The launch took place at the University of Minnesota Law School and was sponsored by the Department of Political Science, the Human Rights Program and the Human Rights Center.

Transitionaljusticedata.com is intended for scholars and practitioners who wish to examine the causes and impacts of mechanisms that address human rights violations. The Transitional Justice Research Collaborative website contains data on three primary transitional justice mechanisms—500+ human rights prosecutions, 40+ truth commissions, and 60+ amnesties—for 109 democratic transitions in 86 countries around the world from 1970-2012.

The dataset includes the most comprehensive single collection of information on these mechanisms for countries around the world. It was created through the support of the US National Science Foundation and the UK Arts and Humanities Research Council.

LAC alumnus David Poritz co-stars in PBS documentary Oil and Water

16 June 2014

David Poritz, 2013 MSc Public Policy in Latin America will be in Oxford this week to screen the PBS documentary Oil & Water which traces his work in the oil and gas industry over the last eight years.

David will be screening the film at Rhodes House on Wednesday, June 18th at 5:00pm.

Diego Sánchez-Ancochea has been appointed co-editor of Journal of Latin American Studies

11 June 2014

From December 2014 onwards Diego Sánchez-Ancochea will be the co-editor of the Journal of Latin American Studies. JLAS is regarded as one of the best journals of Latin American studies in the world. JLAS presents recent research in the field of Latin American studies in development studies, economics, geography, history, politics and international relations, public policy, sociology and social anthropology. Regular features include articles on contemporary themes, short thematic commentaries on key issues, and an extensive section of book reviews.

On May 20, 2014, Dr Francesca Lessa (LAC postdoctoral researcher) and Hugo Rojas (DPhil Sociology) participated in a panel held at Columbia College, Chicago about how nations confront painful pasts. An engaging dialogue ensued between LAC scholar Lessa and DPhil associate student Rojas with Columbia Lecturer and Fulbright Scholar Jeff Kelly Lowenstein. Award-winning photographer Jon Lowenstein showed photographs of Chile’s past, present and future that he had taken for a project he and Kelly Lowenstein had done for The New Yorker. The discussion touched upon issues of memory and justice in Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, the United States and other countries.

LAC MPhil Student Presents at SLAS 2014 in London

14 May 2014

Angelica presented part of her MPhil fieldwork at the Society for Latin America Studies’ (SLAS) 50th Anniversary Conference in London in April. Her paper, “A Stagnant Spring? Sexual Violence and Judicial Independence in the Ríos Montt Trial,” analyses the meanings and implications of this historic case. The first part looks at the impact of the use of egregious sexual violence during Guatemala’s armed conflict to prove the genocide claim during this trial and the reverberations this had on gender roles of indigenous women in the country. The second part explores questions of judicial independence during this controversial trial and the influence it is having on neighbouring regions. Angelica was awarded the SLAS Postgraduate Bursary to present her paper.

Spanish legal journal Eunomía publishes a book forum on Dr Lessa’s latest book

2 May 2014

The Spanish legal journal Eunomía. Revista en Cultura de la Legalidad dedicated in its latest number (March-August 2014) a book forum section to discussing Dr Lessa’s book Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay: Against Impunity.

The book forum comprises two reviews of the book by law Professor Carmen Pérez González and political science Professor Vincent Druliolle of Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. As part of the forum, Dr Lessa gets the chance to respond to the reviewers’ comments.

LAC Working Paper in Political Economy No 2, by Javier Rodriguez Weber and Rosemary Thorp

2 May 2014

The LAC Working Papers in Political Economy series is part of the collaboration between the Latin American Centre and CAF Development Bank of Latin America. The Latin American Centre aims to publish high quality work in progress that explores political economy issues in Latin America. We understand political economy quite broadly just like classical economists did: we aim to include research on economics and its interactions with politics and will particularly focus on issues regarding economic change, structural transformation, income distribution and public policy. The series will include a contribution from each year's CAF Visiting Fellow.

At the 2014 OAH Annual Meeting, OAH President Alan M. Kraut and OAH President-Elect Patricia Limerick presented Alice L. Baumgartner, LAC MPhil student from 2011-2013 and currently studying history at the Graduate School, Yale University, with the 2014 Louis Pelzer Memorial Award for the best essay in American history by a graduate student.

Alice's essay is titled:

“ʻThe Line of Positive Safety’: Borders, Boundaries, and Nations in the Rio Grande Valley, 1848–1880.”

Alice's essay explores American-Mexican relations at the border and will be published in the Journal of American History in conjunction with the award. The winning essay was judged anonymously based on significance of the subject matter, literary craftsmanship, and competence in the handling of evidence.

Founded in 1907, the OAH is the largest learned society and professional organization dedicated to the teaching and study of the American past. The OAH promotes excellence in the scholarship, teaching, and presentation of American history, and encourages wide discussion of historical questions and equitable treatment of all practitioners of history.

II Graduate Conference on Latin American Law and Policy

7 March 2014

The II Graduate Conference on Latin American Law and Policy took place on 7th March 2014 and brought to Oxford dozens of faculty members, doctoral candidates, and general public to discuss various contemporary socio-legal challenges on the continent. In his opening remarks, the Dean of the Faculty of Law, Professor Timothy Endicott, presented the event as a breakthrough, which has created an important opportunity for debating these issues and suggests promising links with the Latin American Centre, UCL, and law schools from Latin America. The Director of the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Dr Fernanda Pirie, highlighted the rich variety of themes in the different panels. Dr Timothy Power, representing the Latin American Centre, also emphasized the importance of the conference and wished everyone a great event.

In their final remarks, the conference organisers echoed the opening remarks, to the effect that the conference has not only provided a comprehensive panoramic view of Latin American law and policy, but also to put these subjects in Oxford's intellectual map.

Photo: Chaired by Dr. Bettina Lange and observed by Jose Miguel Mendoza and Catherine Arias, Laura Bernal-Bermudez presents her paper at the second panel.

LAC Alumnus Appointed to Assistant Professorship in Brazilian Studies at University of Illinois

4 March 2014

Glen Goodman (MSc 2005-2006) has recently been appointed to the position of Assistant Professor of Brazilian Studies in the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research focuses on German immigration to Brazil. Glen’s doctoral dissertation, written at Emory University under the supervision of Professor Jeffrey Lesser, is entitled "From Perigo Alemão to Presidente Teuto-Brasileiro: Immigration, Ethnicity, and the Making of Brazilian Identities 1924-1974." During his time at Emory, Glen won two DAAD awards to conduct field research at Berlin and was also a doctoral Fulbright scholar in Brazil.

On Friday, 14 February, Dr Par Engstrom gave a talk on “Brazilian Post-Transitional Justice and the Inter-American Human Rights System”. His remarks focused on the role of the Inter-American Human Rights System and discussed the types of transitional justice policies that may be required from Brazil in the aftermath of the November 2010 Gomes Lund verdict by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. Dr Engstrom discussed what some of the key implications of the ruling and of the Brazilian government’s responses to it tell us about the prospects for and limitations of Brazilian post-transitional justice, and arguably, Brazilian democracy more broadly.

On 18th February 2014, the Brazilian Studies Programme in conjunction with the Rio Branco Visiting Professorship of International Relations sponsored a roundtable on “Brazil and Africa: Historical Legacies, Contemporary Engagement.” Speakers debated the diplomatic, cultural and commercial ties between Brazil and sub-Saharan Africa, with special attention to the political outreach by the Lula and Dilma governments and the increasing presence of Brazilian direct investment in Africa. Left to right: Andrew Hurrell (Balliol College), Ricardo Soares de Oliveira (St Peter’s College), Paulo Visentini (Rio Branco Professor 2014) and Gerhard Seibert (ISCTE Lisbon).

Juan Luis Passarelli and Mathew Charles preview at the LAC their new acclaimed documentary, The Engineer

10 February 2014

On Thursday evening, the LAC welcomed Juan Luis Passarelli and Mathew Charles to preview their new documentary, The Engineer. The film follows the daily routine of Israel Ticas, the only forensic criminologist in El Salvador. Touching on themes of violence, gangs, and desaparecidos, the documentary reflects the gruesome reality of recovering lost bodies scattered around the country. After the screening, the directors held a Q&A session, in which they expressed their hopes that the film would offer a new way of examining topics of gangs and violence in El Salvador.

Dilma moves to the right

5 February 2014

Chris Arnold, David Doyle and Nina Wiesehomeier analyse Dilma’s Mensagem ao Congresso from last monday. As they report on their blog, the incumbant Brazilian president started out with a position close to Lula, her predecessor. While she then established herself on a more extreme leftist position, she strikes a more moderate tone this year. Read the complete post under www.textospoliticospresblog.net.

Prof Scott Mainwaring presented his new book co-authored with Dr Aníbal Pérez-Liñán on Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America

31 January 2014

On 31st January 2014, Prof Scott Mainwaring (University of Notre Dame) visited the LAC and presented his new book in co-authorship with Dr Aníbal Pérez-Liñán of the University of Pittsburgh. The monograph, entitled Democracies and Dictatorships in Latin America: Emergence, Survival, and Fall, presents a comprehensive theory of regime change in Latin America over the course of the 20th century. The book is being released by Cambridge University Press in March 2014.

BSP Workshop on The Brazilian Political Class: Ideology, Values, and Policy Preferences

31 January 2014

On 31st January 2014, with the generous support of Santander Universities UK, the Brazilian Studies Programme hosted a day-long workshop on “The Brazilian Political Class: Ideology, Values, and Policy Preferences.” Papers explored data collected in a summer 2013 survey of the Brazilian Congress conducted by Timothy Power (BSP) and Cesar Zucco Jr. (FGV Rio de Janeiro). The field research was financed by the John Fell OUP Research Fund of the University of Oxford. Foreground: Taylor Boas (Boston University) and Amy Erica Smith (Iowa State University), co-authors of a paper on "Speaking for the Flock: Evangelicalism, Descriptive Representation, and Opinion Congruence in Brazil.” Their new research shows that Pentecostal voters have achieved better descriptive representation in the Brazilian legislature than have either women or Afro-Brazilians.

The Brazilian Outlook for 2014: Elections, Economy and Mega-Events

30 January 2014

On 30th January 2014, the Brazilian Studies Programme joined forces with the Fundação Getúlio Vargas (Rio de Janeiro) and with the Kellogg Institute (University of Notre Dame) to organize a public event in London on “The Brazilian Outlook for 2014.” The event was held at the Notre Dame London Centre in Trafalgar Square and was opened by HE Roberto Jaguaribe, Ambassador of Brazil to the United Kingdom. The speakers debated Brazilian economic performance, recent political protests, the run-up to the FIFA World Cup and the upcoming presidential race (for a more detailed report see Brazilian Outlook 2014). Left to right: Timothy Power (Oxford), Carlos Pereira (FGV), Daniela Campello (FGV), Cesar Zucco Jr. (FGV) and Scott Mainwaring (Notre Dame).

The LAC launches the LAC Working Papers in Political Economy

24 January 2014

The LAC Working Papers in Political Economy series is part of the collaboration between the Latin American Centre and CAF Development Bank of Latin America. The Latin American Centre aims to publish high quality work in progress that explores political economy issues in Latin America. We understand political economy quite broadly just like classical economists did: we aim to include research on economics and its interactions with politics and will particularly focus on issues regarding economic change, structural transformation, income distribution and public policy. The series will include a contribution from each year's CAF Visiting Fellow.

Dr Onuch’s research on Protests in Ukraine is featured in The Monkey Cage Blog at The Washington Post

6 January 2014

Olga Onuch’s “Social networks and social media in Ukrainian “Euromaidan” protests” featured on The Monkey Cage Blog at The Washington Post. This piece briefly summarizes the main preliminary findings from Olga’s Ukraine Protest Project Survey of Euromaidan Protesters. This piece is directly tied to Olga’s ongoing research into the micro-mechnaisms of protest participation.

Photo: Olga Onuch/The Monkey Cage

Sofia Donoso, one of LAC’s DPhil affiliates, received a research grant from CLACSO-New School

6 January 2014

Sofia Donoso received a research grant from CLACSO (Buenos Aires) and The New School (New York City) which includes short research leaves at both institutions. Sofia will use the grant to develop the research on Chile’s Student Movement that she began for her DPhil in Development Studies under Dr Diego Sanchez-Ancochea's supervision. In September 2013 she successfully completed her DPhil dissertation, titled "Reconstructing collective action in the neoliberal era: The emergence and political impact of social movements in Chile since 1990". Congratulations, Sofia!

Alan Angell talks about the life and career of Michelle Bachelet on BBC Radio 4

20 December 2013

The Radio Four programme Profile discussed the life and career of Michelle Bachelet with contributions from Alan Angell and others.

Dr Olga Onuch interviewed on Al Jazeera to discuss the on-going Ukrainian protests and political crisis

Dr Onuch and Dr Toma recipients of John Fell Fund Grant

Dr Olga Onuch received a John Fell Fund Grant with Dr. Sorana Toma at QEH to study the relationship between migration and protest in Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Dr Lessa’s book launch at the CMI and Bergen Resource Centre for International Development

9 December 2013

Invited by the cluster on “Rights and Legal Institutions” of the Chr. Michelsen Institute (CMI), Dr Francesca Lessa presented her book Memory and Transitional Justice in Argentina and Uruguay: Against Impunity on December 4 at the Bergen Resource Centre for International Development.

Attended by a full and mixed audience of students, academics, and researchers, the presentation by Dr Lessa was followed by comments and reflections provided by Senior Researcher Elin Skaar and Dr Camila Gianella (both of CMI). The public also participated asking several questions and raising comments.

This was the last presentation of the year for Dr Lessa, after similar events being organised in London, Oxford, New York, and Montevideo.

Handbook of Central American Governance, by Diego Sánchez-Ancochea and Salvador Martí i Puig

28 November 2013

Central America constitutes a fascinating case study of the challenges, opportunities and characteristics of the process of transformation in today’s global economy. Comprised of a politically diverse range of societies, this region has long been of interest to students of economic development and political change.

The Handbook of Central American Governance aims to describe and explain the manifold processes that are taking place in Central America that are altering patterns of social, political and economic governance, with particular focus on the impact of globalization and democratization. Containing sections on topics such as state and democracy, key political and social actors, inequality and social policy and international relations, in addition to in-depth studies on five key countries (Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala), this text is composed of contributions from some of the leading scholars in the field.

No other single volume studies the current characteristics of the region from a political, economic and social perspective or reviews recent research in such detail. As such, this handbook is of value to academics, students and researchers as well as to policy-makers and those with an interest in governance and political processes.

LAC Podcast Series

27 November 2013

It is with great pleasure we announce the launch of the LAC Podcast Series. We hope that our LAC Seminar discussions, Guido Di Tella Memorial Lectures and other relevant events will now be able to reach a wider audience. This will contribute to the dissemination of important research and inter-disciplinary debates on the region. Please feel free to share it amongst your friends and contacts.

Inaugural Guido Di Tella Memorial Lecture

27 November 2013

On 25 October 2013 the Latin American Centre and St Antony’s College co-sponsored the inaugural Guido Di Tella Memorial Lecture at the Nissan Lecture Theatre. Guido Di Tella was Argentina’s Foreign Minister for nearly a decade and a long-time associate of the College and the Latin American Centre. He spent the years after the 1976 military coup in Oxford. He had a lifetime commitment to both public and academic life.

Malcolm Deas, a close friend of Guido’s and the Di Tella family, a distinguished scholar of Latin America, and a dear colleague of the LAC and St Antony’s delivered the inaugural lecture. There is no one who could better represent the spirit behind the memorial lecture series, specifically to remember Guido, to contribute to the understanding of the region’s complexities, and to highlight the role that the College has played in enhancing knowledge about Latin America from the initial formation of a Latin American programme in 1959. Malcolm Deas lecture focused on “Frontiers and Cultures: Reflections on Lucio V. Mansilla and Francis Parkman. “

Stimulating discussion on The Colombian Peace Talks

26 November 2013

On 20 November 2013, the Oxford Network of Peace Studies, the Latin American Centre and the Oxford Department of International Development hosted the conference “The Colombian Peace Talks: A Challenge for Security and Democracy?”, convened by Annette Idler. Taking place one year after the beginning of the current peace talks between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), this timely event was the first of its nature at Oxford. In a multidisciplinary dialogue, the delegates explored Colombia’s challenges related to security and democracy during the peace process and reflected upon the long-term implications for a potential post-conflict period. The conference thus provided a critical space to engage in a fruitful, intellectually stimulating discussion guided by the following themes: (i) past peace negotiations; (ii) democracy and political participation; (iii) security, drugs and justice; (iv) land issues and victims’ rights; (v) lessons learned from other peace processes. The event brought together some ninety delegates from Oxford and across the UK, Europe and Colombia. Participants included senior and junior academics, the NGO community, diplomats, analysts from think tanks and development agencies as well as citizens interested in the topic. Panelists included among others Ingrid Betancourt, John Dew, Jorge Orlando Melo, Mauricio Rubio, Markus Schultze-Kraft, Leigh Payne, Henry Patterson and Eduardo Posada-Carbó. Mauricio Rodríguez Múnera, the Special Peace Advisor to Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, delivered the conference dinner speech. The event was supported by Canning House and by the Colombian Embassy to the UK. For the conference report please contact annette.idler@qeh.ox.ac.uk. (Photo by Alejandro Olayo).

The popular BBC 4 radio programme Woman's Hour covered the election in Chile as, very unusually, the major two candidates were both women. Interviews were conducted with Alan Angell and with Carmen Sepulveda of the Institute of Latin American Studies in London.

Santander Universities UK and the Latin American Centre

12 November 2013

The LAC was represented at the signing ceremony on 11th November 2013 renewing the collaboration between Santander Universities UK and the University of Oxford. Santander provides generous support to the Latin American Centre, including student and fieldwork travel grants plus research funding for the Brazilian Studies Programme (Santander is the largest foreign bank in Brazil, with over 27 million customers).

LAC Staff and Researchers present project findings at Chatham House in London

11 November 2013

On October 31, Professor Leigh Payne, Dr Francesca Lessa, and Gabriel Pereira presented at Chatham House some of the preliminary conclusions and policy implications emanating from their research on the controversial issue of amnesty laws for atrocities in the aftermath of transitions from authoritarian rule and/or conflict.

The seminar at Chatham House was attended by an interested and varied audience of government and ministry officials, academics, students, a representative of the British Army, NGOs, a representative from one of the project's funders (Oak Foundation), and members of the public.

Using the transitional justice data set they created, the presenters explored whether the so-called ‘age of human rights accountability’ has shifted patterns of amnesty law adoption and if those trends have improved accountability processes. They paid particular attention to the experience of Latin America - a global leader in the enactment of amnesty laws for human rights violations as well as a pioneer in the creative attempts of challenging these laws to obtain justice.

In terms of policy implications, the presenters highlighted the importance of the capacity of different actors and factors in challenging the legality and validity of amnesties, emphasizing especially the role of civil society actors and judicial leaders.

Bert Hoffmann Discusses Internet Politics in Cuba

11 November 2013

On 12th November 2013, Dr Bert Hoffmann (GIGA Hamburg) discussed the new role of the Internet in shaping the public sphere in Cuba. He analyzed the recent controversy in which musician Robertico Carcassés improvised lyrics and criticized the regime during a concert broadcast live on state television. This episode, which went straight to YouTube and other social media sites, was also distributed widely on USB sticks and generated intense online and public discussion.

LAC presentation in Harvard at Workshop on the History of Electoral Fraud and Democratization

5 November 2013

Dr Eduardo Posada-Carbó visited Harvard University on 1-2 November, where he presented a paper at the workshop ‘The Causes and Consequences of Electoral Fraud: Lessons from the History of Established Democracies’. Organized by Daniel Ziblatt (Harvard) and Jan Teorell (Lund University, Sweeden), at the Minda de Gunzburg Ceter for European Studies, the workshop explored ‘whether there are lessons to be learned from how election fraud subsided or was reduced in past historical instances of democratization and what those theoretical and applied lessons might be’. The workshop gathered scholars from universities in Europe, the United States and Canada, who discussed the experiences of Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy, México, Costa Rica and Colombia – the latter being the focus of Dr. Posada-Carbó’s paper, who looked at ‘Electoral Fraud, Institutional Reform and Party Organization between 1900-1930’. Other contributors to the workshop included Alberto Simpser (Chicago), Chris Kam (British Columbia), Andrew Eggers (LSE), Arthur Spirling (Harvard), Fabrice Lehoucq (North Carolina Greensboro), David Art (Tuft), Isabela Mares (Columbia), Didi Kuo (Stanford), Peter Jensen (Southern Denmark), Nan Zhang (Stanford), John Gerring (Boston), Frederic Schaffer (U-Mass, Amherst), Jim Alt (Harvard), and Jørgen Elklit (Aarhus).

Paulo Visentini named Rio Branco Professor for 2014

5 November 2013

Professor Paulo Visentini (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre) has been selected as the Rio Branco Visiting Professor of International Relations at the University of Oxford. Funded with the generous support of CAPES, Professor Visentini will spend Hilary Term 2014 in residence at the Latin American Centre with a project on emerging south-south relationships in Brazilian foreign policy. For more information (in Portuguese), visit the CAPES website.

James McGuire Analyzes Conditional Cash Transfers in Bolivia

5 November 2013

On 5th November 2013, Professor James McGuire, chair of the Department of Government at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, analyzed the conditional cash transfer programmes introduced by the government of Evo Morales since 2006. He debated the sources and effectiveness of CCT programmes with LAC-affiliated Bolivia specialists such as John Crabtree, David Preston and Laurence Whitehead. McGuire's most recent book, Wealth, Health, and Democracy in East Asia and Latin America (Cambridge University Press, 2010) won the Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research awarded by the ECPR.

Mario Tello, CAF Professor 2013, Lectures on Social Inclusion in Peru

29 October 2013

On 29th October 2013, Dr Mario Tello, professor of economics at the Catholic University of Peru, and also the Oxford-CAF Visiting Fellow in Latin American Economics for Michaelmas Term 2013, gave a lecture on social inclusion during Peru's recent economic boom.

Horizontes Newsletter No 1, Summer 2013

24 October 2013

Dear friends, Queridos amigos, We are pleased to announce the launch of the first edition of Horizontes, the University of Oxford Latin American Centre newsletter.

We see this as an initiative to reconnect with all of you.
Please do send us your news.
And we hope to see you at our 50th anniversary celebration on 25-27 September 2015.

Warmest wishes from

The Latin American Centre

LAC Debates Remittances to Latin America

24 October 2013

On 22nd October 2013, the LAC held a roundtable discussion on the economic and political effects of remittances to Latin America. Isabel Ruiz (Harris Manchester College), Faisal Ahmed (Nuffield College), and David Doyle (St Hugh's College) analyzed how remittances ameliorate economic downturns in the region, how they impact traditional political practices such as clientelism, and how they may affect electoral choices. The three presentations were discussed by Dr Diego Sánchez-Ancochea (St Antony's College) and by an audience of faculty and students. In the photo, LAC seminar convenor Timothy Power (St Cross College) introduces (left to right) David Doyle, Faisal Ahmed, and Isabel Ruiz.

Marie Arana at the Latin American Centre

18 October 2013

Students and members of staff listen to the Washington-based writer Marie Arana, who gave a talk on Simon Bolívar and the wars of independence in Spanish America at the LAC on 18 October. The author of various books, including the novel Cellophane, and a memoir about her bicultural childhood, American Chica: Two Worlds, One Childhood, Arana has now written Bolívar: American Liberator, recently published by Simon & Schuster in the United States and Orion/Weidenfeld & Nicolson in the United Kingdom. Based on her recent biography, she gave a lively presentation on the significance of Bolívar’s achievements, limitations and legacy as the outstanding leader of independence. In addition to students and teachers from the Latin American Centre, Arana’s talk was attended by members of other departments and faculties of the university, including History Spanish and Politics, as well as members of the general public. Her well attended talk motivated an engaging discussion, followed by a reception at the Latin American Centre.

The Chilean coup of 1973, forty years on

15 October 2013

On 15th October 2013, the LAC held a roundtable discussion on the legacy of the Chilean military coup of 11th September 1973, which deposed the elected Socialist president Dr Salvador Allende and led to 17 years of military dictatorship by General Augusto Pinochet. Alan Angell (emeritus fellow, St Antony's College), who pioneered an important academic solidarity campaign in the 1970s and 1980s, analyzed the international repercussion of the coup. Cath Collins (University of Ulster) examined how the 40th anniversary of the coup was observed in Santiago de Chile, and also documented how the legacy of the Pinochet years is very much present in the presidential campaign of 2013. The presentations were discussed by Scott Mainwaring (University of Notre Dame). Left to right: Scott Mainwaring, Alan Angell, Cath Collins.

Timothy Power Visits Institute of Latin America, Moscow

7 October 2013

On 4th October 2013, Dr Timothy Power (Director, Brazilian Studies Programme) visited the Institute of Latin America (ILA) of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. Dr Power gave a lecture on Brazil’s street protests of 2013 to an audience of about 30 ILA faculty and students. Sitting on the speaker’s right is Professor Vladimir Súdarev, vice-director of ILA; on his left is Dr Liudmila Okuneva, vice-director of the BRICS Centre at the Moscow State University of International Relations (MGIMO).

CPP team visit to HSE in Moscow, Russia

4 October 2013

On October 4th 2013, the CPP team visited the National University Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow, Russia, where it debated the early results of the project along with faculty and students of the Department of Comparative Politics. Among others, the event was attended by Andrei Melville (Head of the Department of Comparative Politics) and Mikhail Ilyin (Deputy Dean for Research).

CPP workshop in Ukraine

2 October 2013

On 2nd October, 2013 the CPP held its second regional workshop at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (NaUKMA) in Ukraine. The Oxford team debated the early results of the project along with representatives of the National Institute for Strategic Studies, the Agency for Legislative Initiatives and the Academy of Public Administration under the Office of the President of Ukraine (Department for Parliamentarism) as well as the students and faculty of NaUKMA.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos Visits the Latin American Centre

23 September 2013

On 6th June, Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos visited the Latin American Centre, where he gave an informal presentation on the current situation in Colombia to a selected group of students and the staff of the Centre.

He was welcomed by the Warden of St. Antony’s College, Margaret McMillan and Dr. Eduardo Posada-Carbó, lecturer at the Centre. This is a picture of President Santos with Oxford students after his talk. From the bottom left: Radoslaw Zelewski, President Juan Manuel Santos, Annette Idler, Julián López-Murcia, Juan Gil, Katherine Shattuck, Amelia Jacobsen, Carolina Reyes and Leticia Ruiz.

CPP present at Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo (USP)

23 September 2013

On 23rd September 2013, the Oxford team presented the CPP project to the Department of Political Science, University of São Paulo (USP). Discussants included Fernando Limongi (Professor and Chair, USP) Argelina Figueiredo (IESP, Rio de Janeiro), and George Avelino (Fundação Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo).

In addition, volume 2 of the five volume History of Colombia, which he directs, was also published by Fundación Mapfre and Taurus in Spain. Volume 2, Colombia: la construcción nacional, 1830-1880 was coordinated by Beatriz Castro.

CPP team visit Feseral University of Parana

20 September 2013

On 20th September 2013, the CPP team visited the Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil, where a symposium on comparative presidentialism was sponsored jointly by the graduate programs in Law and Political Science. The event was organized by UFPR professors Fabrício Tomio (Law) and Luciana Veiga and Renato Perissonotto (Social Sciences).

The proceedings were streamed life on YouTube and the video is archived HERE

Pictured: Timothy J. Power, Renato Perissonotto.

CPP workshop in Brazil

19 September 2013

On 19th September, 2013 the CPP held its first regional workshop at the Federal Senate of Brazil in Brasília. The event was jointly opened by Senators Cyro Miranda, Flexa Ribeiro, and Lídice da Mata, by the Ambassador of the United Kingdom, HE Alex Ellis, and by the Director of the Brazilian Legislative Institute Helder Rebouças. The CPP team was joined by the researchers from Federal Senate of Brazil and the University of Brasilia. The event was attended by over 150 people and broadcast on TV in the Senate and online.

They presented to an audience of graduate students and faculty at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFGM), Belo Horizonte, Brazil.

The events was opened by Antonio Mitre (Director of the Center for Latin American Studies); Josè Angelo Machado (chair of the Department of Political Science), Claudia Feres (coordinator of the Political Science Postgraduate Program), Jorge Neves (dean of Philosophy and Human Sciences FAFICH), and Magna Inácio (Centre of Leislative Studies).

Latin American Centre fundraising campaign

The Latin American Centre has launched a fundraising campaign. Our top priority for 2013-14 is to fund the Chair in Latin American History. Please visit our Giving page to learn more.

CPP team at international workshop on Coalition Management

13 September 2013

On 13th September 2013, The CPP team participated in an international workshop on “Coalition Management in Comparative Perspective” at EBAPE (Brazilian School of Public and Business Administration), Fundação Getúlio Vargas, Rio de Janeiro. Other participants in the event included Carlos Pereira, Octavio Amorim Neto, and Greg Michener (all of EBAPE), Marcus Melo (UFPE), Sérgio Praça (UFABC), Acir Almeida (IPEA), Marcelo Vieira (UFMG), and David Samuels (University of Minnesota).

Pictured: Nic Cheeseman

SIAS twitter feed launch

3 September 2013

SIAS is on twitter (@SIASOxford). Please follow us to get notified about news and events from across the school.

Timothy Power keynote speaker at AMECIP

26 August 2013

On 26th August 2013, Timothy J. Power was the evening keynote speaker at the First International Congress of the Mexican Political Science Association (AMECIP) held at the University of Guanajuato. He presented some of the initial findings of the Coalitional Presidentialism Project to an audience of over 500 people on the first day of the conference.

New publication by LAC researcher Francesca Lessa

Francesca Lessa is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Latin American Centre and a Junior Research Fellow at St Anne's College, both University of Oxford, UK. Her previous publications include: The Memory of State Terrorism in the Southern Cone: Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay (2011, coedited with Vincent Druliolle); Luchas contra la impunidad: Uruguay, 1985–2011 (2011, coedited with Gabriela Fried); and Amnesty in the Age of Human Rights Accountability: Comparative and International Perspectives (2012, coedited with Leigh A. Payne).

Book abstract
Existing memory studies literature has tended to focus on commemorative sites and dates while transitional justice scholarship has primarily centered on truth commissions, trials, and reparations. This book explores the interaction between memory and transitional justice and develops a theoretical framework for bringing these two fields of study together through the concept of critical junctures. Focusing on post-dictatorship Argentina and Uruguay, Francesca Lessa uses critical junctures to track and explain moments of change. She traces and analyzes across time the dynamic evolution of and shifts in transitional justice policies and the emergence and replacement of dominant memory narratives in the context of enduring struggles for justice and against impunity.

Justice beyond borders

8 April 2013

Plan Condor: Francesca Lessa co-authored an article with Pierre-Louis Le Goff and was published by Al Jazeera’s Opinion section

Justice beyond borders
The Plan Condor trial has reverberations beyond Argentina, offering the opportunity of justice denied to many victims.

LAC and KCL host joint conference on Brazil

27 February 2013

Last week, the LAC co-hosted a 2-day conference with King's College London entitled 'Democratic Brazil Ascendant'. The first day of the event was held in St Antony's College, Oxford, and the second day was at King's College London. The conference papers will contribute to a forthcoming publication on Brazil.

Francesca Lessa on removal of Judge Mariana Mota

27 February 2013

Francesca Lessa has been interviewed by TV channel, Canal 10, about the Uruguayan Supreme Court's decision to remove judge Mariana Mota from investigations into crimes perpetrated by the former dictatorship. The decision to remove Mariana Mota has drawn widespread international criticism, and represents a severe blow to all those fighting impunity for the dictatorship's crimes.

Timothy J. Power elected Treasurer of LASA

4 February 2013

Timothy J. Power (University Lecturer in Brazilian Studies) has been elected Treasurer of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA). His term in office will extend from 1st June 2013 to 31st May 2016. Previously, Power served as Program Co-Chair for the 30th International Congress of LASA in San Francisco, held in May 2012. Founded in 1966 and with a current membership of 7000 scholars, LASA is the largest professional association in the world for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America.

LAC Alumni appointed to Enrique Peña's new Government in Mexico

4 February 2013

Two LAC alumni have been appointed as part of President Enrique Peña's new Government in Mexico. Mr Aurelio Nuño Mayer (MSc Latin American Studies, matriculation '06) was designated President Enrique Peña's Chief of Staff. Mr Manolo Reynaud (MSc Latin American Studies, matriculation '08) has been designated the Chief of Staff's Senior Advisor.

The discussion was moderated by Professor Andrew Hurrell, with commentary by Letícia Pinheiro (PUC-RJ) and Olivier Dabène (Sciences-Po).

Welcoming remarks were given by the Vice Chancellor, Professor Andrew Hamilton, the Warden of St Antony's College, Professor Margaret MacMillan, and the Ambassador of Brazil, HE Roberto Jaguaribe.

Photo credit: Gemma Turvey

LAC conference in Lima on social inclusion

14 December 2012

On Monday 10 December, the LAC co-hosted a conference in Lima on the political economy of social inclusion in Latin America. The conference, which was attended by more than 400 people, was co-sponsored by CAF-Development Bank of Latin America and the Universidad del Pacífico.

Keynote speakers included George Gray Molina, Chief Economist for UNDP-Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as Carolina Trivelli, the Peruvian Minister for Development and Social Inclusion.

The conference was opened by Germán Ríos, Director of Strategic Affairs for CAF, Felipe Portocarrero, Rector of the Universidad del Pacífico, as well as Diego Sánchez-Ancochea from the LAC.

Press Coverage

Several of the conference participants gave interviews to the local press. A selection of the articles published are included below.

LAC-CAF Visiting Fellowship in Latin American Economics

About our new website

1 December 2012

Welcome to our new-look website. Our goal is to improve user experience with a responsive design, built to work on mobile devices as well as desktop computers. We'd really like your feedback. Please use our contact page to tell us what you think.

Dr Svitlana Chernykh and Dr Timothy Power present the CPP project at University of Salamanca

23 November 2012

On 23rd November 2012, Dr Svitlana Chernykh and Dr Timothy Power presented the CPP project to an audience of faculty and graduate students in the Department of Political Science, University of Salamanca. USAL has a long tradition of survey research in Latin American legislatures via the Parliamentary Elites in Latin America (PELA) project, and researchers from CPP and PELA will be sharing data and insights from ongoing fieldwork. Pictured (left to right): Svitlana Chernykh, Mercedes García Montero (USAL), and Magna Inácio (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil, and visiting researcher at the Latin American Centre, Oxford). Photo credit: Timothy Power.

Jorge Katz appointed CAF Visiting Fellow in Latin American Economics

30 October 2012

Professor Jorge Katz (Universidad de Chile) has been appointed the first CAF Visiting Fellow in Latin American Economics.

Professor Katz will be in Oxford for Michaelmas Term 2012, October - December 2012, and he will carry out research on 'Growth, Transformation and Inequality in Latin America'.

Professor Miriam Gomes Saraiva(Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro) has been appointed the first Rio Branco Chair in International Relations. Professor Saraiva will be in Oxford for Hilary Term, January - April 2013, and she will carry out research on 'Strategies and Partnerships for Brazil in a Changing Global Order: the Place of the European Union'.

£9,000 Scholarship for Residents of Costa Rica

16 October 2012

The Ronaldo Falconer Scholarship is open to young persons who are residents of Costa Rica of whatever nationality, race or creed. It is awarded and wholly financed by the Ronaldo Falconer Charity, a private independent charity founded under the will of Ronaldo Falconer (1895-1973).

Ronaldo Falconer was a British national who, during his life, established and maintained close links with Costa Rica, becoming a citizen of Costa Rica in 1919. He later served as Honorary Consul for Costa Rica in Europe, and on his death made provision in his Will for the establishment of the charity.

Award Criteria

Applications for the Ronaldo Falconer Scholarship are invited from residents of Costa Rica who are qualified to undertake postgraduate study and research at the University of Oxford. The award is not normally made to persons who are over 30 years old.

One scholarship of £9,000 is available for the 2013/14 academic year to study for the MSc in Latin American Studies, taught by the Latin American Centre.

The successful candidate will normally be based at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, which specialises in advanced study and research in the fields of Latin American history, politics, economics, and sociology. Candidates must have fulfilled the University's English Language requirements. Please see the course guide for more information.

How to Apply

Complete the online application for the MSc in Latin American Studies at the University of Oxford. You should apply in either admissions deadline for 2013/14 (Friday 18th January 2013 or Friday 8th March 2013) and specify St Antony's as your first choice of college.

Complete the application form for the Ronaldo Falconer Scholarship and email it to the LAC Administrator no later than Friday 8th March 2013.

Your application will be considered by the Ronaldo Falconer Selection Committee based at the LAC. The successful candidate will be notified once they have received an official offer to study on the MSc in Latin American Studies. It is hoped to publish the result by 1st June 2013. Incomplete applications, or applications not submitted by the deadline will not be considered for the scholarship.

Alumni Davis Tarwater wins gold at London 2012

16 August 2012

Davis Tarwater wins gold at London 2012 as part of the USA's 4x200m freestyle relay team

After missing the 2008 Olympics by one spot, Davis retired from swimming and came to Oxford for one year in 2009-2010, during which time he completed the MSc Latin American Studies.

Whilst at the LAC, Davis took courses in the International Relations of Latin America, the Politics of Democracy in Latin America, and he completed his MSc extended essay on the topic, 'The United States and Venezuela during the Chávez Presidency 1999-2009'. In an interview earlier this year, Davis described his time at Oxford as the 'best year of his life'

You can read more about Davis' sporting career in the following articles:

Timothy Power gives inaugural lecture of a new MA programme in Legislative Studies

7 August 2012

On 7th August 2012, Dr Timothy Power gave the inaugural lecture of a new MA programme in Legislative Studies sponsored by the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies in Brasília.

The MA course, administered by the Chamber's Center for Training and Professional Development (CEFOR) is the first accredited postgraduate programme operated by a national parliament anywhere in the world. The programme will admit 12 new MA candidates per year from among the Chamber's professional staff. Continuing the public outreach of the CPP team, Dr Power's lecture addressed the politics of executive-legislative relations under coalitional presidentialism. Click HERE for more info (in Portuguese).

Photo credit: Alexandra Martins.

Professor Glaucius Oliva, President of CNPq visits Oxford

30 July 2012

On 12th March, Professor Glaucius Oliva, president of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) visited the Brazilian Studies Programme. CNPq is a foundation linked to the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT) to support Brazilian research and innovation, and is currently engaged in the implementation of the Science Without Borders programme that will award scholarships to 75,000 Brazilians to study for research degrees abroad. Professor Oliva met with Vice Chancellor Andrew Hamilton to secure the participation of the University in this ambitious new programme.

The Brazilian Studies Programme currently hosts two CNPq grantees: Dr Renato Perissonotto, professor of social sciences at the Federal University of Paraná, and Ms Andréa Freitas, doctoral candidate in political science at the University of São Paulo.